Staff Report

A grain and dairy farming family in St. Henry, Ohio, welcomed Auxiliary Bishop Joseph R. Binzer, as well as Catholics from the St. Marys and Sidney deaneries to this year’s Rural-Urban Mass on June 5.

The bishop said Mass in the equipment barn of Jim and Jan Broering’s farm. The hosting parish was St. Henry in St. Henry. The Mass was part of the parish’s celebration of its 175-yearhistory.

At Mass, Bishop Binzer presented Catholic Century Farm Awards to 24 Catholic farm families who have applied for admission to the Catholic Century Farm Registry for the Sidney and St. Marys deaneries.  The award recognizes Catholic families who have continuously farmed the same land for 100 years or more. The bishop also blessed soil and water that was distributed after Mass.

The annual Rural-Urban Mass is an opportunity for farmers and the people who share in the benefits of an agricultural community to come together in a prayerful way to praise God for the blessings of faith, farm and family.

Catholic Rural Life of the St. Marys and Sidney deaneries plans the rural-urban Mass, alternating it between the two deaneries, said Vern Seger, chairperson of Catholic Rural Life.

Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr celebrated last year’s Rural-Urban Mass.

All images credited as CT Photo/Jeff Unroe.

Story posted June 19, 2014